[Definition break: In Memoriam: an article written in memory of a dead person; an obituary.]
Today I am writing in memoriam for all those who died to save our country. To all those who didn’t just lose their lives. To those who left behind bereft wives or husbands. To those who left behind shattered children who would never see their parents again. To those who left blossoming careers or ordinary jobs that may have turned into something more than ordinary. To those who left behind ordinary jobs. Because ordinary jobs mean living and loving and doing and being and…
To those who were eighteen or twenty-five or thirty…who had an entire lifetime ahead of them – I am writing in memory of them all. To those who loved ice cream and climbing mountains and movies and baseball and…anything – whatever they loved and left behind.
To those who suffered the pains of war: cold, hunger, fear, loneliness… To those who suffered the horrors of war, of sitting in trenches as bombs exploded the earth around them or bullets rent the air, watching their comrades die…waiting for their own lives to be expelled from them, ripping them from this earth.
To those who gave everything to keep our country secure, to protect and serve, I write this in memoriam.
God bless our service men and women. Give your loose change or dollar bills, take the poppies, and wear them proudly – in memoriam. A visible article in memory of them all. We might not have the life we have, if it were not for them.
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